Speech acts are most easily identified and differentiated in dialogue, therefore play texts seem quite convenient for analysing and investigating the theory of speech acts. Miroslav Krleža’s play In Agony may be approach

Speech acts are most easily identified and differentiated in dialogue, therefore play texts seem quite convenient for analysing and investigating the theory of speech acts. Miroslav Krleža’s play In Agony may be approached as corpus for illustrating both the constative and the performative conception of language. The conflict between the characters of the given play indeed arises out of their opposing conceptions of language. The drama therefore takes place on the level of meta-language; the main characters “argue” because they speak different languages. The speech acts in the play (particularly compliments) have been analysed from the perspective of feminist linguistics.